Texas shooting suspect Francisco Oropesa still at large as police widen search

Several hundred law enforcement officers led by the FBI were taking part in the search for suspect Francisco Oropesa. They have been using drones, dogs and riding horses to comb through the thick forests around the town of Cleveland where Friday night’s horrific crime occurred, the New York Post reports.

Mr Oropesa, a 38-year-old married father from Mexico who is in the US illegally, was previously deported “multiple’’ times because he lacked legal residency status, Fox News reported.

His last encounter with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement was in 2016, the outlet said.

“We do not know where he is,” FBI special agent James Smith said on Sunday. ​

“We have zero leads.”

Local San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said authorities had widened their hunt for Mr Oropesa to at least 32km from Cleveland, which is about 72km north of Houston.

“We are tracking him with dogs and men on horseback and drones in the air,” Sheriff Capers said.

“He could be anywhere now,” he said, noting that Mr Oropesa is considered “armed and dangerous”.

Alleged murder after simple request

Mr Oropesa allegedly killed the victims with an AR-15-style rifle after the residents asked him to stop firing off rounds in his yard because they had a baby trying to sleep next door. It is alleged he was drunk at the time.

“We asked him to be quiet cause my baby was scared,” resident Wilson Garcia told the local KTRK-TV affiliate, through a Spanish translator.

Mr Garcia, whose infant is one month old, said his wife, Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, and his eight-year-old son, Daniel Enrique Lazo, were both shot dead.

“We had company. We were going to make something to eat. The guy came out, and he was shooting,” the father claimed.

“I never thought that he would shoot,’’ Mr Garcia said.

“Then he went room to room, looking for people.’’

Authorities recovered a phone and clothing while searching surrounding forests for the suspect, who they at first thought they had cornered, Sheriff Capers said. But police dogs then lost the scent.

Officers found an assault rifle which they believe is the murder weapon.

They also found other weapons in Mr Oropesa’s home.

Neighbours were being asked on Sunday if their properties could be searched, and local vehicles were being stopped, as the manhunt ramped up. Authorities also offered an $US80,000 ($A120,000) reward for information leading to the suspect. ​

Mr Oropesa’s wife was also questioned, authorities said.

Neighbour Veronica Pineda, a 34-year-old mother-of-five, praised the efforts of police.

“That’s good for them to do that,” she said.

“It is kind of scary. You never know where he [could] be.”

The neighbour said the suspect, his wife and son have lived in the community for five or six years.

Shooting victims named

The five victims were named as Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25, Daniel Enrique Lazo, 8, Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21, Julisa Molina Rivera, 31, and Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18.

They were all believed to be Honduran, authorities said.

They were each shot “from the neck up”, Sheriff Capers said.

Two of the murder victims were found in a bedroom with their bodies over a pair of children, apparently in an attempt to shield them, he said.

Three blood-covered children in the home survived the massacre, he said.

There were 10 people in the home at the time of the shooting, although no one else was hurt, officials said. Some of those in the home had only moved in a few days earlier.

There was more than one family in the home, authorities confirmed.

“We demand that the full weight of the law be applied against the person responsible for this crime,” tweeted Enrique Reina, the secretary of foreign affairs and international co-operation for Honduras.

“The Consulate in Houston is already making contact with the families, to whom we reiterate our solidarity on behalf of the government of the President … in case it is necessary to repatriate the remains,” he said.

‘Never know how they’re going to react’

The bloodshed occurred after at least some of the people from the house went to the suspect and asked him to stop firing his gun, Sheriff Capers said.

“The man walked over to the fence, said, ‘Hey, we’re trying to keep the baby asleep in here,’” Sheriff Capers said.

Mr Oropesa responded that he was on his property, the sheriff said.

The law enforcement officer said there is video of the gunman then going to their front door with his rifle.

Local resident Rene Arevalo Sr said he heard the bullets but shrugged them off.

“It’s a normal thing people do around here, especially on Fridays after work,” Mr Arevalo said of the gunfire.

“They get home and start drinking in their backyards and shooting out there,” he said.

“I tell my wife all the time, ‘Stay away from the neighbours. Don’t argue with them. You never know how they’re going to react.

“I tell her that, because Texas is a state where you don’t know who has a gun and who is going to react that way.”

Officers had previously been to Mr Oropesa’s home at least once because of “shooting his gun in the yard”, Sheriff Capers said. It wasn’t immediately clear if any action was taken against the suspect at the time.

The deadly assault was just the latest mass shooting in the US, as the country keeps up its record pace for such horrific events, which have included locations such as a Nashville school, a Kentucky bank and a Southern California dance hall.

So far this year, there have been at least 18 shootings that have each left four or more people dead, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

The motives have ranged from murder-suicides to gang retaliation and workplace vendettas.

Last year in Texas, there was the heinous attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that left 19 children and two teachers dead, a racially motivated shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 in which 23 people were killed, and a gunman opening fire at a church in the tiny town of Sutherland Springs in 2017 which killed 26 people.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission